commander faschisto wrote:Very cool rifle there, Trident! Can't complain about Bullwinkle, either...
Have you considered making forearm assemblies with a matching "dipped" finish, like they do with Realtree, etc.?
its crossed my mind... that stok is laminated, we have purchased a batch of them from a reputible manufacturer, however we found them to be weak around the area of the buffer tube and prone to splitting. the laminated is 10x better than the standard wood though, but as stated still prone to weakness.
I love the wood concept, and the laminated looks wonderful.
currently on the bench, i have a aluminum free float tube i have recently made up myself, and have wrapped it with a birch vineer, which is about 1/16" thick, adding about 1/8" to the total diameter of the tube. The issue im running into is the seam, i just dont like it.
currently the seam on the forearm is on the bottom, but the new plan is to manufacture a new design of free float tube with an area recessed in it for the wood laminate, (think like the hogue tubes where the rubber part is, ) but additionally to have a continuous top rail. This allows my wood laminate to end at the rail from either side at the top, and not look ugly( at least in theory)...
I think this will make the wood guys happy, and keep the attributes of the free float design in the plans as well.
as far as the buttstocks go, the best thing ive been able to do so far is to soak the insides of them with epoxy, and allow it to set up, and then ream it out again with a large bit, at least it helps some..... pretty hard though to put our warranty on something like those though, about 25% of em come back...